Why so many smart-home products stop feeling smart

A connected product is two products: the object and the service. The object is engineered to last. The service is funded until it is not.

In the last few years we have watched apps for products we own get discontinued, feature-gated, or moved behind subscriptions after purchase. In each case the hardware was fine and the product was not. A toaster with a touchscreen, a water bottle with an app, a sound machine with a membership — all still work, and all are worse than the day you bought them if the company changes its mind.

Our rule: a connected product earns a positive verdict only if it still does its core job with the server unreachable and the app deleted. That is why the sound machine we recommend is a fan in a dome.